Judd Trump reached the English Open last 32 with a comfortable 4-0 victory over Daniel Wells on Wednesday in Crawley.
Aided by a rare 16-red break of 108 in the second frame, the world champion recorded his second whitewash scoreline of the week to advance to the third round.
The world number one has already one ranking event title to his name this season after his early success in the International Championship.
Two of the other big winners on the calendar this term advanced too with Trump’s fellow Englishmen Ronnie O’Sullivan and Shaun Murphy moving forward in contrasting circumstances.
The latter, who has reached a hat-trick of finals in the last couple of months including when he won the China Championship last month, overcame Akani Songsermsawad 4-1.
O’Sullivan was made to work a lot harder for his 4-3 victory, a second deciding frame clincher in succession for the Shanghai Masters winner.
The “Rocket”, who etched his name onto this trophy in 2017, is bidding for a record 37th ranking crown but only just squeezed through against China’s Yuan Sijun.
The teenager appeared set to inflict a rare defeat on the five-time world champion but stumbled with the winning line in sight, squandering a 3-1 advantage as O’Sullivan fought back to steal it at the death.
O’Sullivan will face the in-form Hossein Vafaei next after the Iranian, a semi-finalist in Guangzhou, beat Chen Feilong.
Trump encounters veteran Lee Walker while Murphy faces Fan Zhengyi, one of three competitors who have embarked on a run to this stage of a ranking event for the first time in their careers.
The others are Fan’s countryman Si Jiahui, who caused the upset of the tournament so far in his 4-1 ousting of defending champion Stuart Bingham, and England’s Louis Heathcote.
Meanwhile, several other marquee names managed to emerge unscathed to advance to the English Open last 32.
Neil Robertson prevailed in a tricky contest on paper against old rival Marco Fu, while Marks Selby and Allen enjoyed triumphs over Martin O’Donnell and Andy Lee respectively.
Kyren Wilson and Jack Lisowski had much sterner tests on the third day at the K2 but just about survived in matches that lasted the distance.
Other likely contenders like Barry Hawkins, as well as World Championship semi-finals duo David Gilbert and Gary Wilson, remain in the hunt for glory on Sunday.
There’s £70,000 on offer for the champion this week and a possible ticket through to the lucrative Champion of Champions invitational to boot.
The likes of Joe Perry, Ricky Walden, Xiao Guodong, and Zhao Xintong – who faces Robertson in a mouthwatering tie on Thursday – will be vying for the silverware that could earn them a spot in Coventry’s field.
Among some of the others in the English Open last 32 are veterans Fergal O’Brien and Dominic Dale, as well as Shoot Out king Thephchaiya Un-Nooh and former world champion Graeme Dott.
On Thursday, the line-up will be whittled down to the final eight with both the third and fourth rounds set to take place in another hectic day’s schedule.
For those of us who don’t see the match on TV, an explanation of the ‘rare 16 red’ circumstance would be interesting and informative. I don’t have enough knowledge of the rules to know how that can happen.
Hi Carl. If a player fouls and the opponent can’t subsequently see both sides of the object ball, a “Free Ball” is called by the referee. This means that any ball can be potted on the table and it’ll be worth the value of the original object ball. In this instance, there can be an additional red and this is why the highest break in snooker is in fact 155, not 147. Cheers.
Oh yes! I’ve learned about the free ball but didn’t equate it to the 16th ball, and now understand how the 155 I’ve heard of can be achieved. Thanks for shaking my brain a bit David. I appreciate your continuing passion for the game and your column is a constant source of reading pleasure.